Werner Heinz Muche

Werner Heinz Muche , mostly written as W. Heinz Muche, (born August 8, 1911 in Radeberg ; † September 10, 1987 ibid) was a German entomologist ( entomologist ), manufacturer of teaching aids and insect dealer.

Life

Muche prepared his first trip abroad while he was an apprentice gardener. She took him to the mountains of Montenegro for seven months in 1932 . The desire to travel lasted his whole life and took him to all five continents. W. Heinz Muche initially worked as a volunteer at the well-known insect shop “ Staudinger & Bang Haas ” in Dresden and then as an experimental helper with Heinrich Prell (1888–1962) in Tharandt . In 1937 he toured Libya. The war took him to France, Russia and North Africa as a soldier, where he deserted. He was caught and sentenced to parole. As a prisoner of war he came to the USA, where he worked as a lumberjack in various states. His constant collecting of insects was noticed, and so he rose to become a pest controller and biology teacher and came to Fort Devens / Massachusetts . After returning from the USA, he founded a specialty shop in his hometown of Radeberg, where he sold teaching materials he had made himself. After the Staudinger & Bang-Haas company was dissolved in 1948, he took over the insects from the company's collection, with the exception of butterflies. Since then he began to occupy himself intensively with beetles, later almost exclusively with sawfly . About two thirds of his over 150 scientific papers deal with sawfly.

W. Heinz Muche has described numerous insect species anew, here too mainly sawfly. In zoological literature, his name is usually abbreviated to "Muche".

Remaining collection

Most of his collections went to the Museum für Tierkunde Dresden , including his special collection of plant beetles (Alleculidae). The sawfly (Tenthredinidae) went to Frank Koch (Berlin), the Vespoidea via Koch to Walther (Berlin).

Biographical sources

• Rolf Hertel: W. Heinz Muche - 75 years. In: Entomological News and Reports. 30 (3), 1986, pp. 130-131 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
• Rolf Hertel: On the 75th birthday of the entomologist W. Heinz Muche. PDF (1.8 MB) on ZOBODAT (with a detailed list of works and a portrait).